The present disclosure relates to systems and methods for associating beds, rooms, and/or patients and particularly, to such association systems and methods used in a healthcare facility.
Systems and methods for determining the location of a patient bed within a healthcare facility are known. In some of the known systems, a locating tag is attached to the bed and periodically transmits a wireless signal that includes a tag identifier (aka a “tag ID”) which is a string of characters such as letters and/or numbers and/or symbols that uniquely identify the tag. In some such prior art systems, a set of wireless receivers are mounted at fixed locations throughout the healthcare facility and are coupled to the computer network of the healthcare facility. A receiver in the vicinity of a tag receives the tag ID and transmits it along with a receiver ID to other computer devices of the network. Each receiver ID corresponds to a location in the healthcare facility. Thus, one or more remote computer devices are able to determine the location of the bed based on the tag ID and the receiver ID.
In many of the prior art systems, the wireless signal from the tag is an infrared signal that requires an uninterrupted line of sight to a receiver. If the line of sight is blocked, the receiver does not receive the signal from the tag. Thus, in more recent times, the desire has been to use radio frequency (RF) tags but the drawback with those systems is that RF signals are able to penetrate floors, ceilings and walls in a healthcare facility such that multiple receivers sometimes receive the same wireless RF signal and further processing of some type is needed to resolve the ambiguity of the bed's location. Some prior art systems have resolved the ambiguities by analyzing signal strength or analyzing time of flight information.
In some known prior art systems, patient beds have circuitry that transmits a bed ID, as opposed to a tag ID, as well as bed status data from the beds. Typically, the transmissions are made over a cable that extends from the bed to some sort of interface unit mounted to a wall in a room, but there is the option to do this wirelessly in some prior art systems by using a wireless interface unit mounted to the room wall. In any event, the interface unit that receives the transmissions from the bed, either via a wired or wireless connection, is then connected to the network of the healthcare facility, typically, via a wired connection. In these prior art systems, the installation of interface units just to receive bed ID and bed status data is an added cost to the overall network of the healthcare facility.
The use of wireless access points in healthcare facilities to receive Wi-Fi signals from a variety of equipment and computer devices is becoming more widespread. Thus, there is a need to develop systems and methods for making bed-to-room associations or patient-to-room associations or patient-to-bed associations or patient-to-bed-to-room associations that minimize the amount of specialized receivers, interface units, or other equipment that must be coupled to the network of the facility.